BARR HEARING | House committee votes to allow Barr questioning

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Attorney General William Barr's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee (all times local):

12:25 p.m.

The House Judiciary Committee has voted to allow its staff to question Attorney General William Barr, throwing his scheduled testimony Thursday into question.

The Democrat-led panel voted to allow extra time for questioning. Barr was testifying in the Senate during the House panel's vote Wednesday and has objected to the change. It's unclear whether Barr will testify before Chairman Jerrold Nadler's panel as scheduled.

Nadler speculated that Barr "is afraid" of testifying, adding, "he apparently does not want to answer questions."

Republicans shot back that Democrats are conducting impeachment-like proceedings against President Donald Trump instead of legitimate oversight.

Barr on Wednesday defended his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller's (MUHL'-urz) report. His testimony came after the release of a letter from Mueller expressing frustration about how Barr portrayed his findings.

12:05 p.m.

Attorney General William Barr says he saw no issue with his choice of words when he told Congress last month he believed "spying did occur" against Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Barr testified Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee and said the word spying "does not have any pejorative connotation."

Barr made the comment in April during testimony to the House Appropriations Committee. He provided no details about what "spying" may have taken place but appeared to be alluding to a surveillance warrant the FBI obtained on a former Trump associate.

Barr defended himself Wednesday, arguing it's a common term in media reports to refer to lawful surveillance.

When pressed by Democratic Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse that the term is not commonly used by Justice Department officials, Barr responded: "It is commonly used by me."

11:35 a.m.

Attorney General William Barr says he believes that if special counsel Robert Mueller felt he shouldn't make a decision about whether or not the president obstructed justice then he "shouldn't have investigated."

Barr testified Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He says he isn't totally sure why the special counsel did not reach a conclusion about whether the president obstructed justice. Instead, Mueller presented evidence on both sides of the question.

Barr says that if Mueller "felt he shouldn't go down the path taking a traditional prosecutive decision" then he shouldn't have investigated. He says, "That was the time to pull up."

Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (ROH'-zen-styn) determined the evidence was insufficient to support an obstruction charge.

Mueller sent a letter saying that Barr's four-page summary of his Russia report created "public confusion about critical aspects of the results."

11:05 a.m.

Attorney General William Barr says special counsel Robert Mueller told him that Barr didn’t “misrepresent” Mueller’s Russia report in a letter summarizing the probe’s principal conclusions.

The attorney general testified Wednesday before Congress and responded to the release of a March 27 letter from Mueller complaining that Barr’s four-page letter about the report “did not fully capture the context, nature and substance” of the special counsel’s “work and conclusions.”

Barr says he called Mueller after receiving his complaints and Mueller told him “he was not suggesting that we had misrepresented his report.”

Barr says Mueller told him press reports were reading too much into Barr’s letter and Mueller wanted the public to see more of his reasoning for not answering the question of whether President Donald Trump committed obstruction of justice.

Mueller’s letter says that Barr’s summary of his Russia report created “public confusion about critical aspects of the results.”

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10:55 a.m.

Attorney General William Barr says he was surprised that special counsel Robert Mueller and his team did not reach a conclusion on whether or not President Donald Trump obstructed justice.

Barr said in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that Mueller told him of his team’s plans at a March 5 meeting.

A Justice Department legal opinion says sitting presidents cannot be indicted. Barr says Mueller told him he wouldn’t have recommended indicting the president even without that opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel.

Barr says Mueller told him that there may come a time when the Justice Department should consider revisiting that opinion but that this is not that case.

Mueller has written a letter saying that Barr’s summary of his Russia report created “public confusion about critical aspects of the results.”

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10:45 a.m.

Attorney General William Barr is criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller for not identifying grand jury material in his Russia report when he submitted it.

Barr says the Mueller team’s failure to do that slowed down the release of the public version of the report.

Barr testified Wednesday about his handling of the Mueller report before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The testimony comes after the release of a letter from Mueller. That letter reveals the special counsel had prepared the summaries of his two-volume report for immediate public release but Barr chose not to release them.

Barr instead wrote his own letter summarizing Mueller’s findings. Mueller’s letter says that Barr’s summary created “public confusion about critical aspects of the results” of the Russia probe.

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10:40 a.m.

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is requesting that the panel hold a hearing with special counsel Robert Mueller (MUHL’-ur).

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (FYN’-styn) said Wednesday in her opening statement at the committee’s hearing on Mueller’s Russia report that she had asked Chairman Lindsey Graham to invite the special counsel.

Graham has said he doesn’t think Mueller needs to testify. The South Carolina senator says he’s satisfied with hearing from Attorney General William Barr, who is appearing before the panel on Wednesday.

Graham said in his opening statement he’s ready to move on from the report. He says that for him “it’s over.”

10:32 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr defended his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report on Wednesday amid new revelations that Mueller expressed frustration to Barr about how the attorney general was portraying the investigation’s findings.

Barr’s first appearance on Capitol Hill since releasing a redacted version of the report, presented a dramatic showdown as Democrats confronted him with allegations that he spun the investigation’s findings in President Donald Trump’s favor. Democrats were also likely to accuse him of misleading lawmakers last month when he suggested he was unaware of concerns on the Mueller team about his actions.

Barr’s appearance Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee highlighted the partisan schism around Mueller’s report and the Justice Department’s handling of it. It gave the attorney general his most extensive opportunity to explain the department’s actions, including his press conference held before the report’s release, and for him to repair a reputation bruised by allegations that he’s the Republican president’s protector.

Barr noted in his prepared testimony Wednesday that Mueller concluded his investigation without any interference and that neither the attorney general nor any other Justice Department official overruled the special counsel on any action he wanted to take. Barr also defended his decision to step in and clear the president of obstruction of justice after Mueller presented evidence on both sides but didn’t reach a conclusion.

“The Deputy Attorney General and I knew that we had to make this assessment because, as I previously explained, the prosecutorial judgment whether a crime has been established is an integral part of the Department’s criminal process,” Barr said in his testimony.

A major focus of the hearing was sure to be the Tuesday night revelation that Mueller told Barr, in a letter to the Justice Department and in a phone call, that he was frustrated with how the conclusions of his investigation were being portrayed.

Mueller’s letter, dated March 27, conveys his frustration that Barr released what the attorney general saw as the bottom-line conclusions of the special counsel’s investigation and not the introductions and executive summaries that Mueller’s team had prepared and believed conveyed more nuance and context than Barr’s own letter. Mueller said he had communicated the same concern two days earlier.

“The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office’s work and conclusions,” Mueller wrote.

“There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”